This is the most remarkable story of the midterm cycle, and I can't tell it to you without talking about the man who told the story in the first place. Walter Robinson of the Boston Globe is one of those investigative reporters whose names you do not want to see on your call sheet when you come back from lunch. Robinson is also a Vietnam veteran, and one of the conspicuous bugs in his ear are people who embroider their military records for political purposes. . . .
Anyway, there's this guy named Seth Moulton, who is running for Congress as the Democratic candidate from the Sixth District up here in the Commonwealth (God save it!) Moulton already has done our republic great good service by ending the career of Democratic incumbent John Tierney by squashing Tierney in the primary. Now, Moulton is in a relatively close race against Richard Tisei, an openly gay Republican. Somehow, Moulton got on Robinson's radar because Moulton treated his service in Iraq very obliquely in his campaign. Because he had run down so many people who'd phonied up their war records, Robinson got intrigued, so he went to work combing through Moulton's service record. (Robinson has a leather ass for this sort of work. For details, please consult Bernard Cardinal Law, Basilica Of Our Lady Of The Clean Getaway, Rome.) What Robinson found was enough to warm even the most cynical heart. Including his own. Including mine.

"And then, uniquely, there is Seth W. Moulton, the Democratic nominee for Congress in the Sixth Congressional District, a former Marine who saw fierce combat for months and months in Iraq. But Moulton chose not to publicly disclose that he was twice decorated for heroism until pressed by the Globe. In 2003 and 2004, during weeks-long battles with Iraqi insurgents, then-Lieutenant Moulton "fearlessly exposed himself to enemy fire" while leading his platoon during pitched battles for control of Nasiriyah and Najaf south of Baghdad, according to citations for the medals that the Globe requested from the campaign. The Globe learned of the awards - the Bronze Star medal for valor and the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation medal for valor - after reviewing an official summary of Moulton's five years of service, in which they were noted in military argot."

. . .when confronted by Robinson with this covert campaign of decency and integrity, this is how Moulton explained it:

. . " 'Look,' he said, 'we served our country, and we served the guys next to us. And it's not something to brag about.' The greatest honor, he said, his voice choked with emotion, had nothing to do with the medals. 'The greatest honor of my life was to lead these men in my platoon, even though it was a war that I and they disagreed with.'"

Nobody who reads this blog can be unclear about where I stand on how I hope the midterms play out. But I can honestly say that there's only one person for whom I am shamelessly rooting. That person is Seth Moulton and, if the veterans of our 21st century wars are looking for their own JFK, be that John F. Kennedy or John Forbes Kerry, I think they've found him. I mean, goddamn, people.